Oddly Specific Movie Comparisons

(Been slowly recovering from a debilitating late stage post-concussive sensitivity flare, so this post is my first real creative project in weeks.)

Lists of unrelated movies with oddly specific similarities are a popular trend on Letterboxd, and Cow Shea’s lists especially have inspired my own. So, why not share some of my lists here, and with expansions that the Letterboxd character limit won’t allow?

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IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) / JUMANJI (1995)

A prologue sets up the hero’s small town childhood, and later in life, he’s magically transported to a timeline where his absence has digressed his hometown. When the timeline corrects, his lip is bleeding, and his last scene takes place at a Christmas party with his wife where “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is played.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) / STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996)

After the second act culminates with the film’s most sustained action set piece, the hero surrenders himself to the villains in a relatively restrained third act until a third party melts their faces off.

THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984) / THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) / REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)

A sci-fi / fantasy threequel that culminates with a fight over a river of lava where one side wins by taking advantage of higher ground.

THREE AMIGOS! (1986) / A BUG’S LIFE (1998) / GALAXY QUEST (1999)

Featuring music written by a Newman cousin, a group of actors gets confused for the characters they play and eventually embody their fictional counterparts to save an oppressed colony.

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) / THE MUMMY RETURNS (2001)

A popcorn sequel that takes place years later than the actual gap between productions, where the first film’s central couple now have a young delinquent son; the female lead is now able to mostly hold her own in combat, and has a frightening vision during a slower middle act amid the constant action; a new villain utilizing an unprecedented attempt at CGI is introduced; callbacks to the first film are made in new contexts; and the ending gives the series nowhere else to go despite subsequent attempts to continue it.

SPEED (1994) / GRAVITY (2013)
(Pointed this out in my Gravity review)

A relentless thriller with a one-word scientific term title about Sandra Bullock boarding at least one vehicle in danger of exploding that contains an image of Saint Christopher.

SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL (1997) / TITANIC (1997)

A 1997 film where a boat trip captained by an actor introduced in the 2002 middle chapter of an iconic fantasy trilogy goes horribly wrong, and the female lead’s romantic past is centered around a Jack.

SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004) / THE INCREDIBLES (2004)

An all-timer superhero film from 2004 where the primarily red-clad hero develops an identity crisis, deals with a hot-headed boss, battles an enemy with robotic claws, stops a moving train with his own body, and at one point hurts his back.

BATMAN BEGINS (2005) / NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (2005)
(I started coming up with this one in a dream)

A 2005 blockbuster based on beloved source material where Liam Neeson mentors a young man who abandons his life in a mansion for a time and obtains combative tools as he journeys through snow on his way to rid his land of deeply rooted evil, but the villain doesn’t die by his hands.

THE SHALLOWS (2016) / KILLER WHALE (2026)

While on a getaway to mourn a loved one, a blue-eyed blonde rips up her wet suit to treat bodily injuries as she gets trapped bikini-clad on a small rock by an aquatic predator for multiple days.

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